


i gathered you here

by afewreelthoughts



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Flash Fic, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-20
Updated: 2018-11-20
Packaged: 2019-08-26 09:05:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,256
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16678666
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afewreelthoughts/pseuds/afewreelthoughts
Summary: “None of us believe in anything, in my family."“Everybody believes in something."





	i gathered you here

**Author's Note:**

> more Robb x Renly flashfics to Florence + the Machine, this time High As Hope
> 
> I own nothing and make no money from this. Everything belongs to George R.R. Martin.

_June_

Whenever Renly leaves, he always leaves the scent of his cologne behind him, sweet on the hot summer air, and Robb is curled on the couch in his apartment, hugging a pillow to his chest and ashamed of the thoughts that scent conjures up. He should never think of a friend this way, especially an old friend, especially a friend that needs him.

“You don’t have to take me in, Robb,” Renly had said, smiling, and leaning his head back to rest on the couch. “I only needed someone to talk to.”

“You can always talk to me,” Robb said, wanting to pull closer to him, closer and closer.

 

_Hunger_

If Robb dislikes how Renly looks without his clothes on, he doesn’t let on. Renly almost thinks that he hears Robb growling beneath his breath as his hands tangle in his hair. The intensity of it makes his chest tie itself in knots, and he pulls back from their kiss long enough to put his lips on Robb’s neck and murmur. “I know I’m not as gorgeous as I used to be.”

“Shut up,” Robb says, and his nails dig into Renly’s shoulders. “Shut up and get in my bed.”

Renly lifts him up, beneath his arms, because he can, and yes, Robb is definitely growling then, as if he cannot stop making joyous noise.

 

_South London Forever_

Robb accepts the flask from Theon and throws it back. Whatever liquor is in there tastes terrible.

“Why’d you come out here with me?” Theon asks, words slurring together. “You wanted to fuck? We can go find some girls? Or you could just fuck me.”

“I wanted to know where you go,” Robb says, his tongue burning from the whiskey. He throws the flask back again. “I wanted to know where you go to be alone, to get away from it all.”

“Cause you need to escape?”

Robb’s heart hurts when he thinks like this, that he wants to run away from his happy family and all the responsibilities that happiness confers on him, but he does.

They are seated on the front of Theon’s car, looking out over their small town. The stars are magnificent above them, and Robb should be enjoying this, this brief interlude away from perfection. But instead he feels a sadness inside. He won’t start crying in front of Theon. He won’t.

“The stars look nice, don’t they?” he says.

 

_Big God_

“None of us believe in anything, in my family,” Renly says, and his white shirt is half-unbuttoned with nothing beneath it, and Robb thinks, but it might be the drink talking, that he’s never seen anyone look so effortlessly interesting.

“Everybody believes in something,” Robb says, because he feels braver than he really is.

“I believe in myself,” Renly says, “and my brother Stannis thinks he’s a god. Does that count?”

Robb laughs because he thinks that’s what he’s supposed to do.

“I didn’t think anybody believed in the gods anymore,” he continues.

“The new gods, maybe,” Robb says. “The older ones are harder to push away.”

 

_Sky Full of Song_

Robb’s bedroom is full of light, and by the time Renly opens his eyes, Robb is half-dressed in boxers and an open shirt, eating his breakfast in the kitchen. For a while, Renly just watches him from the doorway between the bedroom and the kitchen, wrapped in one of his sheets.

“Do you want anything?” Robb asks, glancing at him. Grey Wind lays in a half circle around the kitchen table, and Renly wonders again if the animal is really just a dog.

“Coffee,” Renly says.

Robb doesn’t immediately get up, just smiles at him over the back of his chair.

“What is it?” Renly asks.

“I’m just… so happy.”

 

_Grace_

“I hate coming here,” Renly had said, long before they had arrived at Dragonstone, grey and cold, and occupied by Stannis.

Robb holds his hand as they step off of the ferry. He knows Renly will ask him to let go of it eventually, but he’ll take what he can get.

Stannis’s house is large and old and made of stone.

“He still chooses to live here?”

“Can you imagine having to sell that place?”

“I don’t know,“ Robb says, “some people want to live in haunted houses.”

Renly squeezes his hand, and leads him up to the front door.

Stannis opens it before Renly has a chance to knock. His eyes are even more intense in person than they were in the pictures that Robb saw, and he looks between his brother and Robb and back again, and then down at their joined hands.

“Stannis, this is Robb. Robb, this is my brother.”

Robb extends his hand. Stannis looks down at it, and up at Robb’s face. “You look nothing like your father. I’m pleased.”

 

_Patricia_

The godswoods in the North aren’t what they used to be, fenced in to keep their heart trees safe from vandals and zealots, but Renly has never seen one of them before, and Robb watches him watching, leaning over the edge of the iron fence. He looks over at the gate.

“People are allowed inside?”

“Yeah, but just for services. It’s all wrong.”

“Why?” says Renly, who lived for years in the Reach, where they pruned and cultivated and tamed the nature there so that it would look pretty and helpless.

“I… we just used to climb trees at the godswood at my home, so long ago, Jon and Theon and I. I don’t like the idea of heart trees locked away like this.”

 

_100 Years_

Renly’s skin tastes clean, like soap and sweat, and Robb prefers it like this, with the only light coming in from the windows in his room, soft moonlight and harsh shadows from the street lamps. He thinks Renly likes it too, it gives him permission lie back and let the night wash over him, and Robb with it.

Robb lays between his legs, and lets his mouth move further down. The almost darkness gives him permission, too. His tongue circles around first one nipple, then another.

“Gods, Robb.”

Robb bites down, and feels as Renly presses up against him.

 

_The End of Love_

Robb can hardly stand being in his childhood room for the sadness, but right now, it’s the only place in the house where he can be alone. He sits with his back against the door, trying to banish the image of his mother’s lips becoming a thin line. “Bran is sick, and your father is gone, Robb. You need to stay serious.”

“I am serious. I’m serious about him.”

Catelyn’s eyes had taken in Renly still sitting at the table with Jon and Sansa and Arya and Rickon.

“I know you think that. He might even think the same.”

“I know you’d rather me be dating a girl, right now, Mom - “

“That’s not it, Robb!”

But it was. It was, and it made Robb’s gut churn to think that he might be happy with Renly and unhappy with his family, or win over his mother by breaking Renly’s heart.

 

_No Choir_

Grey Wind took up half of the couch on his own, but Robb was curled tightly enough in Renly’s arms that it didn’t matter. He could smell where Renly had dabbed cologne on the crook of his neck, and he buried his nose there and wrapped his arms tighter around his waist. He could feel Renly’s breath ruffling his hair, and Robb wondered if he was allowed to be this happy. 


End file.
